Read the paragraph given below and answer the question.
If a person is born with a hereditary disease, can a corrective therapy be taken for such a disease? Gene therapy is an attempt to do this. Gene therapy is a collection of methods that allows correction of a gene defect that has been diagnosed in a child/embryo. Here genes are inserted into a person's cells and tissues to treat disease.
The first clinical gene therapy was given in ______ to a ______.
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 2
The correct answer is Option (2) → 1990, 4 year old girl
Option (1) 1990, 4 year old boy — Incorrect. The year is right, but the patient was a girl.
Option (2) 1990, 4 year old girl — Correct. Both details match NCERT: the year 1990 and a 4-year old girl, who had ADA deficiency.
Option (3) 1992, 3 year old boy — Incorrect. NCERT gives 1990 for the first clinical gene therapy, not 1992, and the patient was a 4-year old girl, not a 3-year old boy.
Option (4) 1992, 3 year old girl — Incorrect. The year 1992 is wrong (NCERT gives 1990), and so is the age: the girl was 4 years old, not 3.
Note: The passage is taken from NCERT. NTA has put lines of the NCERT text together to make it. Most CUET (UG) questions come straight from NCERT, so study the book line by line, including figures and their titles.
NCERT Extract:
Gene Therapy – “… The first clinical gene therapy was given in 1990 to a 4-year old girl with adenosine deaminase (ADA) deficiency. This enzyme is crucial for the immune system to function. The disorder is caused due to the deletion of the gene for adenosine deaminase. In some children ADA deficiency can be cured by bone marrow transplantation; in others it can be treated by enzyme replacement therapy, in which functional ADA is given to the patient by injection.”